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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

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http://www.archive.org/details/americanwatercolOOgallrich 


AMERICAN 
WATER-COLOURISTS 


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COPYRIGHT,  1922,  BY  E.  P.  DUTTON  &  COMPANY 

ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


PRINTED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 


— *^  vii  ^*^* 


mnlltllllHII»»lllllttHttTTtTtH-1 **** ** ««««. .■... 


PREFACE 


±his  little  volume  scarcely  aims  to  be  a  comprehen- 
sive account  of  water-colour  painting  in  America,  for 
the  reason  that  it  treats  almost  exclusively  of  the 
significant  figures,  or  rather  of  those  painters  whom 
I  consider  to  be  the  chief  exponents  of  the  art.  I 
have  preferred  to  consider  the  men  of  consequence 
and  weight,  those  who  have  mastered  the  medium, 
and  whose  drawings  reveal  a  personal  expression, 
as  well  as  at  least  something  of  the  spirit  of  moder- 
nity— for  no  matter  how  unsympathetic  an  artist 


•^-<4  viii  ^>^— 

may  he  towards  this  age  and  all  its  commercial- 
ism,  it  is  necessary^  if  his  art  is  to  be  alive  and 
vital,  that  he  should  not  ignore  what  is  going  on 
in  the  world  to-day.  Let  it  not  be  supposed  however 
that  I  have  been  captious  enough  to  completely 
ignore  all  but  the  indispensable  men:  where  real 
merit  exists  I  have  endeavoured  to  pay  at  least  a 
brief  tribute.  But  as  for  assuming  the  role  of  histo- 
rian, that  is  something  to  which  I  have  not  aspired: 
willingly  I  leave  to  others  the  task  of  parading  the 
mediocre. 

To  acquaint  one's  self  with  the  drawings  of  the 
American  water-colourists  it  is  necessary,  with  the 
exception  of  Sargent  and  Winslow  Homer,  to  seek 
out  their  works  in  various  private  collections.  Sar- 
gent is  adequately  represented  in  the  Brooklyn 
Institute,  the  Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts  and  the 
Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art.  To  a  much  lesser  ex- 
tent this  is  also  true  of  Homer.  A  group  of  Dodge 
Macknighfs  water-colours  is  in  the  Boston  Museum 
of  Fine  Arts,  most  of  them  in  storage,  but  to  be  seen 
upon  application.  A  few  Macknights,  as  well  as 


~<^  ix  ^*^' 

several  choice  Sargents  and  Homers  and  a  Whist- 
ler,  are  hung  in  the  Fogg  Art  Museum  of  Harvard 
University.  Two  of  Childe  Hassam^s  water-colours 
are  owned  by  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art, 
where  also  may  be  seen  single  examples  of  Whistler 
and  John  Marin,  both  of  them  gifts.  Charles  De- 
muth  and  Mary  Cassatt  are  not  represented  in  any 
of  the  public  galleries.  Neither  the  Art  Institute 
of  Chicago  nor  the  Pennsylvania  Academy  of  the 
Fine  Arts  owns  a  single  American  water-colour  of 
any  distinction. 

But  if  the  museums  have  not  paid  much  atten- 
tion to  the  water-colourists,  this  fortunately  is  not 
true  of  the  private  collectors,  many  of  whom  have 
had  the  intelligence  and  the  wit  to  acquire  the  water- 
colours  of  Macknight,  of  Marin  and  of  Demuth,  as 
they  bought  those  of  Whistler  and  Homer  during 
the  life-time  of  those  artists.  The  painter  of  origi- 
nality and  talent  who  turns  for  support  to  the  State, 
to  the  public  museums  or  to  organized  art  societies 
is  doomed  to  disappointment.  If  it  were  not  for  the 
support  and  encouragement  of  enlightened  critics 


<4   X   )» 

and  of  amateurs  and  collectors^  the  genius  of  many 
painters  would  never  reach  maturity. 

To  realize  completely  the  talent  of  Dodge  Mac- 
knight  it  is  imperative  that  one  should  visit  the 
private  gallery  of  Mr  Desmond  Fitz  Gerald  at  Brook- 
line,  Massachusetts.  In  this  gallery  of  Mr  FitzGer- 
ald%  which  is  open  to  the- public,  as  well  as  in  his 
house,  which  adjoins  the  gallery,  one  can  view  the 
whole  range  of  the  artisfs  work,  exhibited  in  sev- 
eral hundred  examples.  The  earliest  drawings  are 
there,  as  well  as  the  most  recent,  for  this  collector 
fathomed  Macknighfs  greatness  in  the  beginning 
of  his  career.  In  passing  I  may  note  that  a  few 
years  ago  Mr  Fitz  Gerald  brought  together  in  a  pri- 
vately printed  volume  all  of  the  facts  concerning 
this  painter  s  life  and  work. 

A  number  of  collectors  have  acquired  groups  of 
John  Marin  s  water-colours,  several  of  them  impor- 
tant, but  the  two  great  collections,  both  as  regards 
quality  and  size,  are  those  owned  by  the  artist  him- 
self and  by  Mr  Alfred  Stieglitz.  From  the  earliest 
days,  when  Marin  was  making  etchings  and  pastels 


•     <i  xi  J^»— 

under  the  spell  of  Whistler^  but  very  masterly  for 
all  that,  right  down  to  his  most  recent  and  maddest 
abstractions^  Mr  Stieglitz  has  been  Marin  s  guide, 
philosopher  and  friend.  At  his  diminutive  gallery 
in  New  York  Mr  Stieglitz  introduced  Marin  to  the 
public  in  a  series  of  one-man  shows  extending  from 
1908  to  191 7,  purchasing  a  group  of  drawings  from 
each  of  these  exhibitions  for  his  own  collection, 

A,  E.  G. 

Versailles,  June  1922. 


I  LLUSTRATIONS 

JAMES  McNeill  whistler 

1.  ON  THE  MERSEY  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art 

2.  GREEN  FIELDS,  NEAR  LOCHES 

Howard  Mansfield  Collection 

3.  SUNDAY  AT  DOMBERG  Fogg  Art  Museum 

4.  FORGET-ME-NOT       Mrs  Howard  Mansfield  Collection 

WINSLOW  HOMER 

5.  PALM  TREE,  NASSAU        Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art 

6.  TORNADO,  BAHAMAS        Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art 

7.  BERMUDA  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art 

8.  SHORE  AND  SURF,  NASSAU 

Metropolitan  Museum  of  AlRT 

9.  QUANANICHE  FISHING     Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts 

JOHN  S.  SARGENT 

10.  VENETIAN  CANAL  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art 

11.  IDLE  SAILS  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art 

12.  IN  THE  GENERALIFE  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art 

13.  TORRE  GALLE  Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts 


^  xiv  ^ 

DODGE  MACKNIGHT 

14.  THE  FROZEN  BROOK,  NEW  HAMPSHIRE  WOODS 

Mrs  Charles  A.  Stone  Collection 

15.  AMATLAN,  MEXICO        Desmond  FitzGerald  Collection 

16.  FISHING  VILLAGES,  NEWFOUNDLAND 

Desmond  FitzGerald  Collection 

17.  WINTER  LANDSCAPE      Dr  Denman  W.  Ross  Collection 

JOHN  MARIN 

18.  RIVER  EFFECT,  PARIS  A.  E.  G.  Collection 

19.  IN  THE  TYROL  A.  E.  G.  Collection 

20.  CASCO  BAY,  MAINE  A.  E.  G.  Collection 

21.  GRAYS,  MAINE  A.  E.  G.  Collection 

22.  MAINE  COAST  A.  E.  G.  Collection 

23.  LOWER  NEW  YORK  Philip  L.  Goodwin  Collection 

CHARLES  DEMUTH 

24.  CYCLAMEN  A.  E.  G.  Collection 

25.  ACROBATS  Dr  A.  C.  Barnes  Collection 

26.  MILL  TOWN  Dr  W.  C.  Williams  Collection 


•^-<4  XV  )»^- 

»»«iin»»iniinmn»«»««i»«i«««>»»»t»»»»»«»«««»t«>»»»mn»»««»»>ti>«»«»»»t»mn»««»t«»«<«mii«»in»»»n»t»< 

CHILDE  HASSAM 

27.  THE  DARK  POOL,  MAINE  A.  E.  G.  Collection 

WALTER  GAY 

28.  CHINOISERIES  A.  E.  G.  Collection 

MARY  CASS  ATT 

29.  MOTHER  AND  CHILD  Durand-Ruel  Collection 

CHARLES  BURCHFIELD 

30.  THE  NEW  MOON  Ralph  Pulitzer  Collection 


— <^  1  ^>— • 


»<>»♦««  m»t  »»«»»»■■■»»»»«»««»»«  im  >»»»««»«■«<««« I  «»>»»««<  ■«««■»«««« «n«t«»»t«»>»<«»»  «»««««>»  mom 


AMERICAN 

WATER- 
COLOURISTS 


JLIuring  recent  years  a  number  of  America's  most 
talented  artists  have  made  a  serious  study  of  the 
technique  of  water-colour  drawing,  with  admirable 
results.  Neither  the  architects — who  at  present 
lead  the  world — nor  the  sculptors,  who  have  pro- 
duced some  notably  good  work,  have  shown  greater 
progress  and  mastery,  while  the  painters  and  etch- 
ers, as  well  as  those  employing  other  mediums  of 
graphic  expression,  have  not  equalled  what  the 
water-colourists  have  accomplished.  While  it  would 


— <i2  ^ — 

scarcely  be  correct  to  assert  that  an  American  school 
of  water-colourists  has  actually  been  established,  it 
is  undeniable  that  the  water-colourists  have  created 
traditions  for  themselves,  in  addition  to  achieving 
splendid  results  and  developing  new  possibilities 
for  the  medium.  These  artists  have  not  acted  as 
a  body,  but  on  the  contrary  have  been  absolutely 
independent  of  each  other,  and  in  but  one  or  two 
instances  have  they  affiliated  themselves  in  any  way 
with  such  moribund  institutions  as  the  American 
Water-Colour  Society  and  the  New  York  Water- 
Colour  Club,  of  whose  exhibitions  it  might  be  said 
with  but  little  exaggeration  that  they  include  practi- 
cally everything  except  true  water-colour  drawings. 
The  important  school  of  painters  in  water-colour 
which  arose  in  England  during  the  early  part  of 
the  last  century,  under  the  undisputed  leadership  of 
Turner,  one  of  the  great  masters  of  the  medium, 
was  much  more  extensive  than  the  group  of  Amer- 
ican painters  whose  work  we  are  now  considering. 
Certainly  as  great  importance,  however,  must  inev- 
itably attach  to  the  contemporary  American  group. 


— <4  3  ^ — 

when  we  consider  that  Winslow  Homer  produced 
his  greatest  masterpieces  when  working  in  this  me- 
dium; that  Whistler  and  Sargent  were  never  happier 
in  their  resuhs  than  when  employing  water-colour; 
that  John  Marin,  aside  from  his  work  as  an  etcher, 
and  Charles  Demuth  rarely  use  any  other  medium; 
that  Dodge  Macknight's  exhibited  work  has  been 
executed  entirely  in  pure  aquarelle  (  as  a  young 
man  Macknight  made  a  few  pastels  and  now  occa- 
sionally paints  in  oil)  and  that  Childe  Hassam, 
Walter  Gay,  Mary  Cassatt,  as  well  as  numerous 
other  gifted  painters,  have  frequently  directed  their 
talent  into  this  channel.  In  this  connection  it  is 
interesting  to  note  that  Winslow  Homer  and  John 
Marin,  two  of  the  greatest  painters  which  this 
country  has  produced,  are  both  essentially  Amer- 
ican, both  as  regards  ancestry  and  freedom  from 
the  influence  of  foreign  masters.  The  same  is  also 
true  of  Dodge  Macknight,  Charles  Demuth  and 
Charles  Burchfield. 

Turner  introduced  a  certain  brilliancy  and  an  im- 
pressionistic directness  of  handling  into  his  water- 


colours,  as  well  as  a  romantic  and  imaginative 
quality,  which  place  his  work  in  this  medium  far 
above  that  of  his  contemporaries,  either  English 
or  Dutch.  This  fine  tonalist  learned  what  there  was 
to  learn  from  the  matter-of-fact,  academic  draw- 
ings of  his  contemporaries,  so  dry  in  technique: 
it  has  been  truly  said  that  Girtin  opened  the  door 
and  Turner  entered  in.  But  Turner  having  assim- 
ilated the  work  of  his  contemporaries,  then  pro- 
ceeded to  carry  the  art  of  water-colour  drawing 
to  far  greater  heights.  In  varying  degrees  some  of 
the  traditions  established  by  Turner  have  borne 
fruit  in  the  work  of  Whistler,  Sargent,  Homer  and 
Macknight,  whose  summary  treatment,  love  of  sun- 
light and  impressionism  stem  back  to  his  discov- 
eries. The  drawings  of  Macknight,  in  which  one 
does  not  find  the  use  of  body  colour,  are  much 
more  transparent  and  sparkling  than  Turner's, — 
and  these  are  great  virtues  in  water-colour  paint- 
ing,— for  many  of  Turner's  drawings  contain  solid 
impastos  of  body  colour.  Far  more  transparent 
also  are  the  water-colours  of  Whistler,  Sargent  and 


Homer,  whose  use  of  body  colour  has  been  very 
Kmited. 

John  S.  Sargent  is  the  Carolus  Duran  of  his  day, 
the  crowned  king  of  fashionable  portrait  painters, 
the  idol  of  the  Royal  Academy  and  the  Salon.  It  is 
doubtful  if  he  has  missed  a  single  official  honour 
which  comes  the  painter's  way.  An  immensely 
clever  technician,  his  paintings  full  of  the  bravura 
one  finds  in  the  work  of  Hals,  his  portraits  are 
nearly  always  conventional  in  treatment  and  painted 
according  to  the  traditions  of  the  academies.  A  few 
of  Sargent's  portraits  are  very  remarkable  and 
stand  high  in  contemporary  portraiture,  but  the 
supreme  artistry  found  in  a  fine  Manet  or  Whistler 
does  not  belong  to  Sargent. 

Born  in  Florence,  of  American  parentage,  Sar- 
gent studied  at  first  in  the  country  of  his  birth  and 
afterwards  in  Paris,  under  Carolus  Duran.  This 
painter,  famous  in  his  day,  is  now  all  but  forgot- 
ten, while  Manet,  Cezanne,  Renoir  and  other  refuses 
are  now  ranked  with  the  Old  Masters  and  Manet 
has  been  admitted  to  the  Louvre.  Settling  after- 


6^> — 

wards  in  London,  Sargent  quickly  dominated  the 
Royal  Academy  and  in  due  course  was  claimed  by 
the  British  School,  along  with  other  famous  Amer- 
icans, including  Gilbert  Stuart,  Whistler,  E.  A.  Ab- 
bey and  Epstein,  the  sculptor. 

Sargent  has  painted  his  water-colours  with  true 
gusto;  they  are  holiday  recreations,  glimpses  and 
souvenirs  of  his  travels  on  the  continent  of  Europe 
and  elsewhere.  The  painter's  undoubted  talent  is 
sometimes  seen  to  better  advantage  in  these  draw- 
ings than  in  his  pictures.  We  can  not  help  but  ad- 
mire the  marvellous  dexterity  displayed  by  Sargent 
in  his  water-colours  and  the  ease  with  which  he 
washes  in  his  drawings,  as  well  as  their  superb 
breadth  of  treatment.  They  are  arresting  snap-shots 
which  dazzle  us  by  their  brilliancy,  short-hand  notes 
which  display  the  painter's  astounding  skill.  Al- 
though not  as  profound  interpretations  of  nature  as 
Homer's  and  Marin's,  the  water-colours  of  Sargent 
are  never  dull ;  we  can  rarely  say  of  them,  to  bor- 
row the  now  classic  utterance  of  Queen  Victoria  (  as 
quoted  by  Lytton  Strachey):  "We  are  not  amused." 


The  Brooklyn  Institute  of  Arts  and  Sciences 
possesses  a  collection  of  Sargent's  water-colours 
which  is  unrivalled,  both  as  regards  quality  and 
variety.  Eighty-three  in  number,  these  water-colours 
were  purchased  from  the  artist  in  1909,  by  special 
subscription.  The  subjects  are  very  diverse  and 
include  mountain  scenery  in  Switzerland,  marble 
quarries  at  Carrara,  studies  of  architecture  and 
monuments,  sketches  of  people.  A  number  are  of 
the  canals  of  Venice,  while  others  were  drawn  in 
Spain,  in  Syria,  in  Palestine,  in  Sicily,  in  Portugal, 
in  Morocco,  in  Stamboul,  in  Corfu,  in  Rome,  Genoa 
and  Naples.  All  are  delightful  sketches,  spontane- 
ous, and  for  the  greater  part  transparent  and  fresh 
in  colour.  They  are  thoroughly  enjoyable,  even 
when  we  realize  that  this  cosmopolitan  painter  has 
not  quite  got  at  the  root  of  the  matter,  the  funda- 
mentals, with  the  certainty  of  such  a  man  as 
Homer,  who  felt  much  more  deeply.  A  very  rep- 
resentative group  of  Sargent's  water-colours  is  also 
owned  by  the  Museum  of  Fine  Arts  in  Boston,  a 
collection  of  forty-five  examples  purchased  from 


the  painter  in  1912 ;  many  of  them  were  drawn  at 
the  same  time  as  those  in  the  Brooklyn  Institute. 
In  the  Metropohtan  Museum  of  Art  are  ten  excel- 
lent examples,  painted  in  the  Tyrol,  in  Venice,  in 
Spain  and  elsewhere.  As  was  the  case  with  the  two 
collections  above  commented  upon,  these  drawings 
were  also  purchased  from  the  painter,  in  1915. 

Winslow  Homer  is  in  the  very  front  rank  of 
American  water-colourists,  indeed  he  was  "one  of 
the  few  great  masters  of  the  medium  the  world 
has  known"  and  "he  knew  the  meaning  of  wash  as 
few  have  known  it."  I  quote  from  some  notes  on 
Homer's  water-colours  written  by  Marsden  Hart- 
ley, the  talented  American  painter  and  the  author 
of  a  volume  of  well  considered  and  illuminating 
art  criticism.  There  is  no  exaggeration  in  this:  as 
a  technician  Homer  was  without  a  peer.  Which  is 
not  to  say  that  he  possessed  the  vision  and  imag- 
ination of  the  ancient  Chinese,  or  their  sense  of 
design. 

Homer  came  of  pure  New  England  stock:  he  was 
a  Yankee  to  the  core.  Among  his  ancestors  were 


— <4  9  ¥>^— 

many  seafaring  men,  and  his  intense  love  for  the 
sea  was  a  part  of  his  inheritance,  as  was  his  knowl- 
edge of  her  varying  moods.  His  art  is  intensely 
American,  more  so  perhaps  than  that  of  any  other 
painter. 

Far  more  significance  attaches  to  Homer's  water- 
colours  than  to  his  paintings  in  oil,  for  in  that 
medium  he  was  not  a  brilliant  technician  and  his 
handling  was  rather  laboured.  The  water-colours 
are  very  luminous.  The  material  has  been  used 
exactly  as  it  should  be  and  as  regards  colour  they 
are  much  more  beautiful  than  the  paintings  in  oil. 
Homer  himself  likely  enough  preferred  his  water- 
colours  to  his  paintings ;  this  belief  is  strengthened 
by  the  fact  that  at  the  Pan-American  Exposition,  held 
at  Buffalo  a  number  of  years  ago.  Homer  elected 
to  be  represented  solely  by  his  water-colours.  The 
effect  made  by  this  collection,  the  writer  recalls,  was 
very  impressive. 

In  addition  to  choosing  subjects  connected  with 
the  sea.  Homer  often  painted  rivers  and  mountains, 
into  which  he  introduced  figures  of  men,  as  well  as 


10 

animals  and  fish,  the  latter  being  especially  well- 
painted.  All  are  executed  with  the  same  authority 
and  distinction,  although  none  are  quite  as  fine  as 
certain  of  the  West  Indian  subjects.  An  excellent 
group  of  these,  twelve  in  number,  was  shown  at 
the  memorial  exhibition  of  Homer's  works  which 
was  held  at  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art  in 
1910,  the  year  of  the  artist's  death.  Afterwards 
these  water-colours  were  purchased  by  the  Mu- 
seum for  its  permanent  collection  from  the  estate 
of  the  artist.  They  were  painted  at  Nassau,  in  the 
Bahamas,  in  Bermuda  and  in  Cuba,  and  the  semi- 
tropical  vegetation  of  these  colourfiil  islands,  as 
well  as  the  marvellous  blue  sea,  has  been  superbly 
rendered.  They  stand  as  unrivalled  examples  of 
Homer's  art. 

Dodge  Macknight,  one  of  the  most  significant  of 
the  American  water-colourists,  has  always  been 
engrossed  in  the  study  of  sunlight  and  a  follower 
of  the  theories  of  Impressionism.  Bom  in  Provi- 
dence, Macknight  has  been  a  great  wanderer,  in 
many  parts  of  the  world.  Extremes  of  heat  and  cold 


— <i  11  ^ 

have  held  a  special  attraction  for  him,  amounting 
almost  to  a  passion :  from  the  frigid  snow- fields  of 
New  Hampshire,  seen  under  a  brilliant  winter  sun, 
he  has  travelled  to  the  sun-baked  plains  or  hills  of 
Mexico  and  Algeria. 

As  a  young  man  Macknight  went  to  Paris,  from 
whence  some  years  later  he  journeyed  to  Spain. 
From  1900  to  1912  he  was  settled  on  Cape  Cod, 
during  which  period  he  made  trips  to  Jamaica  and 
to  Mexico.  In  recent  years  his  wanderings  have 
taken  him  to  Newfoundland,  to  the  Grand  Canyon 
of  the  Colorado  River,  and  recently  once  more  to 
the  northern  coast  of  Africa. 

In  all  of  these  parts  of  the  world  Macknight  has 
made  water-colours  of  surpassing  interest.  Mac- 
knight is  a  true  aquarellist,  in  the  modem,  and 
correct,  sense :  he  stains  white  paper  with  trans- 
parent washes.  No  water-colourist  has  approached 
him  in  his  amazing  method  of  depicting  snow  seen 
under  a  brilliant  sun.  A  brush  wet  with  blue  pig- 
ment is  rapidly  drawn  over  the  white  paper — a 
few  strokes  suffice — and  he  has  caught  the  very 


^  12  ^> — 

quality  of  the  snow,  sparkling  and  vibrating  under 
the  dazzling  sunlight  of  a  New  Hampshire  winter. 
Occasionally  one  misses  the  fresh  point  of  attack 
in  these  drawings  that  one  always  feels  in  a  Marin; 
at  times  it  is  almost  as  if  a  formula  had  been  em- 
ployed. A  spot  of  vermilion,  either  a  sleigh  or  a 
roof,  nearly  always  appears  as  a  foil  to  the  white 
and  blue  snow,  but  in  spite  of  this  Macknight  is 
always  quite  masterly  in  his  results. 

Whistler,  who  mastered  the  majority  of  the 
mediums  of  artistic  expression,  including  painting, 
etching,  lithography  and  the  pastel,  was  also  a 
water-colourist  of  the  greatest  distinction.  Some  of 
his  most  engaging  work  was  done  in  aquarelle: 
sketches  of  models,  landscapes  and  marines  of 
great  delicacy  and  consummate  artistry.  This  me- 
dium was  peculiarly  adapted  to  Whistler's  genius, 
and  his  water-colours  are  delightfully  fresh,  both 
in  conception  and  execution — notes  and  arrange- 
ments of  delicate  tones  always  pregnant  with  style 
and  the  rarest  beauty.  The  sensitive  drawings  by 
him  which  are  reproduced  in  this  volume  (for  the 


— <4  13  ^ — 

first  time)  in  monotone  have  inevitably  lost  some- 
thing of  their  charm  in  this  translation;  with  a 
powerful  artist  like  Homer  the  loss  has  been 
almost  negligible. 

Childe  Hassam,  one  of  the  principal  exponents 
of  Impressionism  in  this  country,  John  H.  Twacht- 
man,  Theodore  Robinson  and  Ernest  Lawson  being 
the  others,  painted  a  set  of  water-colours  on  the 
Isles  of  Shoals,  lying  off  the  New  England  coast, 
which  give  him  an  undisputed  place  with  the 
masters  of  American  water-colour.  In  this  series, 
which  was  begun  in  1912  and  finished  four  years 
later,  the  rocky  coast,  covered  with  stunted  and 
wind-tortured  vegetation,  and  the  deep  blue  water 
are  beautifully  rendered.  Splendid  in  colour,  finely 
composed  and  drawn  with  great  freedom  and  gusto, 
these  drawings  as  interpretations  of  nature  deserve 
very  high  rank.  The  water-colours  which  Hassam 
made  during  1915  of  the  Hudson  River  and  its  sur- 
rounding mountains  and  bordering  towns,  as  well 
as  in  different  parts  of  New  England,  are  not  nearly 
as  compelling;  nor  is  the  Rockport  Quarry  set  of 


1919.  In  these  drawings  the  painter's  broken  Hne 
and  very  personal  technique,  so  famihar  in  his  paint- 
ings, has  not  seemed  to  be  the  proper  method ;  in 
any  event  the  strong  and  bold  strokes  which  dis- 
tinguish the  Isles  of  Shoals  series  have  produced 
far  more  satisfactory  results.  Still  another  series, 
executed  during  the  summer  of  1920  at  Ports- 
mouth, the  picturesque  old  town  on  the  coast  of 
New  Hampshire,  noted  for  its  colonial  architecture, 
at  the  time  of  writing  has  not  been  exhibited. 

Mary  Cassatt  has  spent  practically  all  her  life 
in  France  and  her  work  is  quite  of  the  French  tra- 
dition. A  pupil  and  an  ardent  admirer  of  Degas, 
Miss  Cassatt  has  found  inspiration  in  his  work,  as 
he  in  turn  learned  many  lessons  from  Ingres.  She 
has  studied  Degas's  art  most  intelligently  and  her 
pictures  are  entirely  her  own;  one  can  scarcely 
say  this  of  Berthe  Morisot  (a  more  gifted  and  del- 
icate painter  than  Mary  Cassatt)  and  her  debt  to 
Manet.  While  Miss  Cassatt's  most  important  work 
has  been  executed  in  pastel,  in  oil  and  in  etching, 
she  has  made  also  quite  a  number  of  studies  in 


— <^  15  ^-^ 

water-colour  which  possess  great  charm.  In  these 
drawings  the  artist  has  chosen  for  her  subjects  the 
young  women,  the  children  and  the  infants  which 
have  been  her  especial  delight  to  portray.  Mere 
sketches  though  many  of  them  are,  studies  for  the 
paintings  and  pastels,  they  are  well  drawn  and 
pure  and  fresh  in  colour. 

Walter  Gay,  who  has  also  passed  the  greater 
part  of  his  life  in  France,  which  is  to  say  Paris,  is 
another  American  whose  art  is  distinctly  French  in 
feeling.  His  pictures  showing  the  interiors  of  beau- 
tiful old  chateaux  and  Parisian  hotels  are  painted 
with  a  rare  art  and  have  pointed  the  way  for  a 
numerous  school  of  followers.  As  a  water-colourist 
Mr  Gay  has  also  attained  great  perfection,  some 
of  his  best  work  having  been  executed  in  this 
medium.  In  addition  to  giving  us  sympathetic  por- 
traits of  charming  old  rooms,  Mr  Gay  has  often 
gone  to  the  park  or  the  moat  of  some  chateau  for 
his  subject;  these  out-of-door  drawings  are  full  of 
sparkling  sunlight  and  are  set  down  in  a  delight- 
fully vivacious  manner. 


— <i  16  ^> — 

John  La  Farge  is  another  highly  gifted  Amer- 
ican painter  who  often  turned  his  attention  to 
water-colour,  with  admirable  results.  The  land- 
scapes which  he  painted  in  Samoa  are  very  fine. 
The  landscapes  in  water-colour  of  J.  Alden  Weir, 
many  of  which  were  executed  in  England,  are 
fresh  enough  in  their  way  and  not  without  charm, 
although  of  no  more  significance  in  the  history  of 
painting  than  his  oils.  The  landscapes  of  Francis 
McComas  are  quite  handsome  in  design;  the  figure 
studies  of  Robert  Blum,  Arthur  B.  Davies,  Walt 
Kuhn  and  Rockwell  Kent  are  not  without  decided 
merit.  One  can  say  the  same  of  Maurice  Prender- 
gast's  water-colours,  although,  being  almost  iden- 
tical as  regards  technique  and  colour,  they  become 
very  monotonous.  William  Zorach  is  nearly  always 
interesting;  whether  painting  landscapes  or  figures, 
his  composition  is  amusing,  his  colour  rich.  The 
strong  and  forceful  landscape  drawings  of  Charles 
Burchfield,  so  full  of  gusto,  are  of  decided  conse- 
quence. Hailing  from  some  little  hamlet  in  Ohio, 
dominated  by  a  railway  line,  this  young  painter 


— <^  17  ^> — 

positively  revels  in  laying  bare  the  sordidness  of 
his  surroundings. 

With  Cezanne  came  a  new  tradition  for  the 
painter  in  water-colour,  a  freshness  and  a  transpar- 
ency which  did  not  hitherto  exist.  Came  also  from 
this  great  innovator,  one  of  the  most  notable  in 
the  history  of  painting,  profound  studies  of  plastic 
relations  and  of  significant  forms,  suggested  with 
the  most  sensitive  washes  of  exquisite  colour  and 
"realized"  (to  employ  a  term  often  used  by  the 
painter)  more  often  than  in  the  paintings  in  oil. 
In  a  general  way  it  is  to  this  tradition  that  belong 
the  water-colours  of  John  Marin  and  Charles  De- 
muth,  who  have  built  up  their  drawings  in  much 
the  same  spirit  as  did  Cezanne,  and  the  Chinese  be- 
fore him,  not  caring  merely  for  the  purely  graphic 
appearance  of  nature,  the  superficial  aspect. 

John  Marin  is  not  only  one  of  the  greatest  and 
most  profound  artists  America  has  produced,  but 
as  a  water-colourist  he  stands  supreme :  it  is  neces- 
sary to  travel  back  to  the  ancient  Chinese  masters 
to  find  his  equal.  Among  contemporary  European 


— <i  18  ^> — 

painter-artists  the  Frenchmen  Raoul  Dufy  and 
Matisse  are  about  the  only  ones  who  can  be  men- 
tioned in  the  same  breath.  Marin  has  sought  not 
merely  to  copy  nature,  to  give  us  literal  transcripts, 
after  the  manner  of  the  Impressionists,  but  rather 
to  portray  an  emotion,  to  "emphasize  nature  here, 
and  distort  it  there,  all  in  harmony  with  a  definite 
artistic  purpose"  ( I  borrow  these  words  from  a 
work  on  Japanese  landscape  gardening).  He  is  not 
interested  in  formulas;  the  roots  of  his  art  are 
deeply  embedded  in  the  soil  of  New  England,  and 
it  is  there  that  his  genius  derives  most  of  its  nour- 
ishment. Marin  himself,  in  an  explanatory  note 
on  his  work,  has  written:  "These  works  are  meant 
as  constructive  expressions  of  the  inner  senses,  re- 
sponding to  things  seen  and  felt.  One  responds 
differently  towards  different  things:  one  even 
responds  differently  towards  the  same  thing.  In 
reality  it  is  the  same  thing  no  longer;  you  are  in 
a  different  mood." 

No  one  has  produced  a  handsomer  wash  than 
Marin,  a  wash  comparable  to  the  best  to  be  found 


— <i  19  ^> — 

in  Chinese  art,  and  no  one  has  excelled  him  as  a 
colourist.  Marin  is  a  visionary,  his  work,  always  so 
beautifully  organized  and  so  superb  in  design,  is  full 
of  mystery.  Emotions  are  evoked  which  show  him 
to  be  a  poet  with  the  rapture  of  Shelley. 

"All  that  we  perceive  around  us  is  merely  raw 
material,"  wrote  Goethe  in  his  introduction  to  The 
Propylden^the  periodical  which  he  assisted  in  found- 
ing and  whose  purpose  was  to  spread  sound  ideas 
about  art,  "If  it  happens  rarely  enough  that  an  art- 
ist, through  instinct  and  taste,  through  practice  and 
experiment,  reaches  the  point  of  attaining  the  beau- 
tiful exterior  of  things,  of  selecting  the  best  from 
the  good  before  him,  and  of  producing  at  least  an 
agreeable  appearance,  it  is  still  more  rare,  partic- 
ularly in  modem  times,  for  an  artist  to  penetrate 
into  the  depths  of  things  as  well  as  into  the  depths 
of  his  own  soul."  Also,  continues  Goethe,  "When 
the  artist  takes  any  object  of  Nature,  the  object 
no  longer  belongs  to  Nature;  indeed  we  say  that 
the  artist  creates  the  object  in  that  moment,  by  ex- 
tracting from  it  all  that  is  significant,  characteristic. 


<4  20  -> — 

interesting,  or  rather  by  putting  into  it  a  higher 
value."  This,  I  think,  is  exactly  what  Marin  has  done : 
Goethe  might  have  been  writing  about  Marin. 

It  was  not  until  January  of  1922  that  Marin's 
work  was  adequately  brought  before  the  larger 
public.  At  that  tin;e  one  of  the  New  York  galleries 
showed  one  hundred  and  ten  of  the  artist's  water- 
colours,  dating  from  1908  to  1921,  four  oil  paint- 
ings (1921),  rare  experiments  which  in  technique 
were  very  like  the  water-colours,  and  a  group  of 
thirty-one  etchings,  the  latter  dating  from  1906 
to  1915  and  including  French,  Venetian  and  New 
York  subjects.  None  of  the  admirable  pastels  which 
Marin  executed  in  Venice,  like  the  majority  of  the 
etchings  belonging  to  the  Whistler  tradition,  were 
shown.  Aside  from  this  the  exhibition  was  most 
comprehensive  and  for  the  first  time  the  public 
had  an  opportunity  to  study  the  artist's  genius  at 
full  length,  for  his  entire  artistic  evolution  was  set 
forth. 

The  earliest  example  shown  was  a  drawing  made 
at  Meaux  in  1908  and  this  was  followed  by  several 


— <4  21  ^ 

executed  in  the  Tyrol  during  the  summer  of  1910, 
a  group  containing  some  of  the  most  spirited  and 
dehghtful  things  Marin  has  ever  done;  a  certain 
measure  of  success  had  come  to  him  and  he  was 
in  a  hohday  mood,  as  is  apparent  in  these  joyous 
washes  of  entrancing  colour.  To  the  same  year  be- 
long a  number  of  drawings  showing  how  the  sky- 
scrapers of  New  York  reacted  upon  him,  and  then 
interpretations  of  Adirondack,  Maine  and  Pennsyl- 
vania landscapes,  dating  from  1912  to  1921,  and 
becoming  more  and  more  abstract  in  character 
each  year.  Finally  we  arrive  at  a  set  of  drawings  of 
down-town  New  York,  several  of  them  showing  the 
Brooklyn  Bridge,  drawings  pregnant  with  dynamic 
energy  which  reflect  the  very  soul  of  New  York. 

Marin  has  prepared  a  brief  autobiographical 
sketch,  from  which  we  learn  that  he  was  bom  in 
1872,  or  thereabouts,  in  Rutherford,  New  Jersey, 
and  that  for  four  years  he  worked  in  an  architect's 
office.  His  schooling  consisted  of  two  years  spent 
at  the  Pennsylvania  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts  and 
one  at  the  Art  Students'  League  in  New  York,  after 


— «'  22  ^>— 

which  he  passed  four  years  in  Europe,  mostly  in 
France. 

Charles  Demuth,  with  respect  to  the  subjects  of 
his  water-colours,  is  one  of  the  most  versatile  of 
the  American  masters  of  the  medium:  this  gifted 
artist  has  made  studies  of  flowers,  views  of  facto- 
ries and  other  buildings,  landscape  interpretations, 
illustrations  for  various  works  of  fiction,  and  stud- 
ies of  vaudeville  performers.  All  are  conceived 
and  executed  in  a  very  modern  spirit.  Demuth, 
who  was  born  and  who  lives  in  Lancaster,  Pennsyl- 
vania, receiving  his  schooling  at  the  Pennsylvania 
Academy,  is  another  aquarellist  whose  work  is 
essentially  American  in  feeling. 

Demuth's  talent  is  confined  within  very  definite 
limits;  his  drawings  are  always  conspicuous  for 
their  perfect  taste  and  a  certain  daintiness  which 
amounts  at  times  almost  to  fastidiousness.  His 
drawings  of  flowers  ( he  has  also  made  one  of  a 
Japanese  orange  tree)  are  exquisite,  full  of  the 
most  delicate  draughtsmanship  and  alluring  colour. 
Style  they  possess,  as  well  as  something  of  the 


— <4  23  ¥ 

subtle  charm  one  finds  in  the  flower  subjects  of 
Redon  and  Fantin-Latour.  In  the  rendering  of 
flowers  no  other  American  has  equalled  him.  De- 
muth's  drawings  of  buildings,  usually  made  at 
Provincetown,  Massachusetts,  or  Coatsville,  Penn- 
sylvania, are  full  of  the  locality  of  the  scene. 

For  Zola's  Nana  Demuth  has  made  seven  or 
eight  illustrations;  for  Henry  James's  The  Turn  of 
the  Screw  four;  for  a  book  by  Wedekind,  a  modern 
German  dramatist,  seven;  for  Poe's  The  Masque 
of  the  Red  Death  a  single  drawing,  as  he  has  for 
Balzac's  The  Girl  of  the  Golden  Eyes ;  while  three 
were  drawn  for  Henry  James's  The  Beast  in  the 
Jungle.  These  water-colours  are  fiiU  of  imagination 
and  display  consummate  artistry;  it  is  regrettable 
that  only  a  few  of  them  have  been  published,  for 
no  American  has  done  quite  such  distinguished 
work  in  this  direction.  As  works  of  art,  in  distinc- 
tion to  their  illustrative  value,  these  water-colours 
possess  an  importance  such  as  attaches  to  the 
decorative  illustrations  of  Aubrey  Beardsley,  the 
greatest  master  of  black  and  white  the  world  has 


— <^  24  ^> — 

known  since  Diirer  and  Holbein.  One  scents  in 
these  drawings  of  Demuth  a  certain  admiration  for 
the  Hthographs  of  Toulouse-Lautrec,  as  one  does 
also  in  the  fifty  or  sixty  acrobat  and  other  vaude- 
ville drawings  which  the  artist  has  made.  Besides 
possessing  Lautrec's  love  for  the  theatre  and  the 
circus,  we  find  in  Demuth's  drawings  unusual  but 
perfectly  balanced  compositions,  a  line  which  is 
alive  and  vital,  and  colour  harmonies  of  rare 
beauty — all  qualities  also  common  to  the  great 
Frenchman.  Rumour  has  it  that  Demuth  may  make 
a  set  of  drawings  for  a  volume  dealing  with  the 
great  vaudeville  artists  which  Marsden  Hartley 
is  said  to  contemplate  writing:  what  a  delightful 
book  this  would  be  ! 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


1 

JAMES  MCNEILL  WHISTLER 

On  the  Mersey 


2 

JAMES  MCNEILL  WHISTLER 

Green  Fields,  near  Loches 


3 

JAMES  MCNEILL  WHISTLER 

Sunday  at  Domberg 


4 

JAMES  MCNEILL  WHISTLER 
Forget-me-not 


5 

WINSLOW  HOMER 
Palm  Tree,  Nassau 


6 

WINSLOW  HOMER 
Tornado,  Bahamas 


7 

WINSLOW  HOMER 

Bermuda 


8 

WINSLOW  HOMER 
Shore  and  Surf,  Nassau 


9 

WINSLOW  HOMER 

Quananiche  Fishing 


10 

JOHN  S.  SARGENT 
Venetian  Canal 


11 

JOHN  S.  SARGENT 
Idle  Sails 


12 

JOHN  S.  SARGENT 
In  the  Generalife 


WKKm.      ^jK'bP 

1. 

1r 

< 

13 

JOHN  S.  SARGENT 
Torre  Galle 


14 

DODGE  MACKNIGHT 
The  Frozen  Brook,  New  Hampshire  Woods 


15 

DODGE  MACKNIGHT 
Amatlan,  Mexico 


16 

DODGE  MACKNIGHT 

Fishing  Villages,  Newfoundland 


17 

DODGE  MACKNIGHT 

Winter  Landscape 


18 

JOHN  MARIN 
River  Effect,  Paris 


19 

JOHN  MARIN 
In  the  Tyrol 


20 

JOHN  MARIN 
Casco  Bay,  Maine 


21 

JOHN  MARIN 
Grays,  Maine 


22 

JOHN  MARIN 

Maine  Coast 


23 

JOHN  MARIN 

Lower  New  York 


24 

CHARLES  DEMUTH 

Cyclamen 


25 

CHARLES  DEMUTH 

Acrobats 


26 

CHARLES  DEMUTH 
Mill  Town 


27 

CHILDE  HASSAM 

The  Dark  Pool,  Maine 


28 

WALTER  GAY 

Chinoiseries 


29 

MARY  CASSATT 

Mother  and  Child 


30 

CHARLES  BURCHFIELD 

The  New  Moon 


BOOKS    ON   ART 

BY 

A.  E.  GALLATIN 


AUBREY  BEARDSLEY'S   DRAWINGS:    A  Catalogue  and  a  List  of 
Criticisms 

With  hitherto  unpubhshed  drawings  and  portraits.  1903 

"A  rare  prize  for  the  Beardsley  collector. . .  A  very  joy  to  possess,  a  catalogue 
which  no  lover  of  Beardsley' s  work  can  well  do  without." — Hal  Dane  in 
Academy  and  Literature  (London) 

WHISTLER'S  ART  DICTA  and  Other  Essays 

With  facsimiles  of  letters  and  drawings.  1904 

"This  exquisite  volume  . . .  is  remarkable  . . .  because  of  a  criticism  which 
may  well  be  a  vade  mecum  to  those  who  would  better  understand  Whistler." 
—  Outlook  (New York) 

WHISTLER  :  NOTES  AND  FOOTNOTES  and  Other  Memoranda 
With  illustrations,  1907 

MODERN  ART  AT  VENICE  and  Other  Notes 
With  frontispiece.  1910 

WHISTLER'S  PASTELS  and  Other  Modern  Profiles 

With  illustrations.  1912,  1913 

"Mr.  Gallatin,  need  one  say,  has  an  uncommon  talent  for  crisp  comment, 
for  catching  the  essential  quality  of  a  thing  of  art  in  a  brief,  sensitive 
phrase." — Richard  Le  Gallienne  in  The  International  (New  York) 

THE    PORTRAITS    AND    CARICATURES    OF    JAMES    McNEILL 
WHISTLER :    An  Iconography 

With  illustrations.  1913 

"A  solid  achievement  for  which  every  collector  of  Whistlerana  will  be  duly 
grateful." — Royal  Cortissoz  in  New  York  Tribune 

"Scholarly  and  endlessly  interesting." — Scotsman  (Edinburgh) 

"Mr.  Gallatin's  iconography  will  prove  an  invaluable  book  of  reference  and 
mine  of  knowledge." — Academy  (London) 


BOOKS    ON   ART 

BY 

A.  E.  GALLATIN 

CERTAIN   CONTEMPORARIES :    A  Set  of  Notes  in  Art  Criticism 
With  illustrations.  1916 

"A  ringing  tribute  to  American  achievement  in  art. The  author  has 

chosen  a  group  of  individual  men,  who  have  stepped  out  from  the  aca- 
demic."— New  York  Evening  Globe 

"A  note  of  real  distinction  in  the  multitudinous  literature  of  art." — New 
York  Times 

"Mr.  Gallatin  is  always  readable  and  instructive,  for  he  is  among  the  few     - 
writers  who  combine  brilliant  expression  with  sound  exposition  of  artistic 
principles,  and  can  convey  solid  facts  with  epigrammatic  charm  and  terse- 
ness. . . .  An  attractive  addition  to  Mr.  Gallatin's  brilliant  series  of  mono- 
graphs."— The  Connoisseur  (London) 

"Mr.  Gallatin's  style  is  most  finished  and  his  point  of  view  delightfully 
individuaL" — American  Magazine  of  Art 

THE  PORTRAITS  OF  ALBERT  GALLATIN 

Three  reproductions,  after  Sharpies,  Stuart  and  Peale.  1917 

PAUL  MANSHIP:  A  Critical  Essay 
With  illustrations.  1917 

VERMEER  OF  DELFT 
With  illustrations.  1917 

PORTRAITS  OF  WHISTLER :  A  Critical  Study  and  Iconography 
With  forty  illustrations.  1918 

ART  AND  THE  GREAT  WAR 

With  one  hundred  illustrations.  1919 

"The  fine  critic,  A.  E.  Gallatin,  does  a  good  service. His  introductory 

essay  is  an  authoritative  guide  through  a  vast  maze.  .. .  A  fine  taste  has 
made  the  selection  in  this  book." — Frank  J.  Mather,  jr.,  in  The  Review 
(New  York) 

"His  record  will  last  and  be  of  great  use  in  the  future." — Joseph  Pennell 
in  New  York  Times 


BOOKS    ON  ART 

BY 

A.  E.  GALLATIN 

WALTER  GAY:   PAINTINGS  OF  FRENCH  INTERIORS 
With  fifty  illustrations,  in  photogravure.  1920 

"Mr.  Gallatin  has  written  a  preface  for  the  volume  as  truly  a  contribution 
to  art  as  the  pictures  themselves." — New  York  Times 

"He  enters  into  the  spirit  of  the  artist  and  after  he  has  deftly  exposed  it 
for  us  he  presents  his  illustrated  work.  ...A  whole  cycle  of  the  history  and 
art  of  France,  for  which  Mr.  Gallatin  is  to  be  be  praised  and  congrat- 
ulated."— Arts  and  Decoration  (New  York) 

MODERN  FINE  PRINTING  IN  AMERICA:  An  Essay.     1921 


NOTE — Portraits  of  Whistler,  Art  and  the  Great  War  and 
Walter  Gay  :  Paintings  of  French  Interiors  are  in  print  and  are 
published  by  Messrs.  E.  P.  DUTTON  &  COMPANY,  NEW  YORK. 


OF  THIS  BOOK 

NINE  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTY  COPIES 

HAVE  BEEN  PRINTED 

BY  BRUCE  ROGERS  AND   WILLIAM   EDWIN    RUDGE 

MOUNT  VERNON,  NEW  YORK 

October,  1922 


